My daughters are more serious gardeners than most adults I know.

They’re the youngest ever volunteers at our local botanic park — a position the older one secured entirely through her own initiative.

As a reward for the long hours they put in nurturing the beautifully varied botanic gardens, they’re given sizeable vegetable plots for their own use.

Hard work, rewarded with … more work.

They bring in bumper crops that supplement what our family gardens already produce (also with their help).

Watching the girls tend their plants, I’m struck by how perfectly gardening mirrors the journey of building a product business.

It starts with planning — deciding what to grow based on climate, soil conditions, and desired outcomes. My daughters pore over seed catalogs with the same intensity founders bring to market analysis, determining which varieties will thrive in our specific, fairly challenging conditions.

Planting comes next — a hopeful act requiring faith and precise execution. Seeds must be placed at the right depth, properly spaced, with appropriate timing.

Too early or too late, and nothing thrives. Product launches share this same precarious window of opportunity. No two planting opportunities are alike.

This year started warmer and dryer than last, and then got cooler. Next spring will be different again.

Next comes the long, patient work of nurturing. Gardens don’t explode overnight, and neither do businesses. My girls check their seedlings daily, adjusting water and support as needed.

They’re learning that consistent attention — not sporadic intensity — produces results.

Weeding and pest control might be the most perfect business metaphor of all.

A garden overwhelmed by weeds produces little fruit, just as a business choked by distractions, technical debt, or poor processes struggles to deliver value.

Rodents can make a delicious, hard-shelled home of your watermelons, as they learned last year.

Squatters, fraudsters and pirates don’t only thrive in gardens. They hit businesses with great efficacy and surprising creativity too.

My daughters have learned the discipline of regular weeding — addressing problems while they’re small rather than letting them take over.

They know about soil-borne viruses that can affect their over-winter garlic crops, and which varieties are most resistant. They expect some losses, and tweak their plans accordingly.

In I Need That, I discuss how successful products require this same blend of strategic planning and daily execution. The most innovative product idea withers without proper care, while even simple concepts flourish with consistent attention.

Product Payoff: Email giant Mailchimp began as a simple tool in 2001 and grew organically for 16 years without external funding — a super-rare, true “bootstrap” success in the tech world. Like master gardeners, founders Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius practiced patience and sustainable growth, adding features only when they could support them properly.

They rejected acquisition offers for years, tending their business THEIR way. When Chestnut and Kurzuis finally sold to Intuit in 2021, their patient cultivation had produced a $12 billion valuation — without the artificial, chaotic growth often demanded by venture capital.

The result was a product with loyal users and sustainable economics rather than inflated metrics and unstable foundations.

Action for today: Figure out which areas of your product “garden” need attention. Are you overplanting (trying to grow too many features at once)? Underweeding (letting technical problems accumulate)? Neglecting soil health (forgetting to nurture your team culture)? Or harvesting prematurely (rushing to market before your product is truly ready)?

The gardener’s mindset — patient, attentive, and aligned with natural cycles — often proves more sustainable than the typical tech growth-at-all-costs approach.

What gardening wisdom have you applied to your product development?

Slap that reply arrow and share your experience combining growth patience with harvest ambition.

Or reach out to my team of product growth consultants at Graphos Product.